Sammie's Saga Continues

I’m ready to put a bounty on the head of one particular groundhog. Dear old Phil. Remember him? The buck-toothed chap who pronounced an early spring?

Meanwhile the world outside shimmers in black and white and gray. Cars are all the same color…shades of road salt. My car is encased in ice and wears icicle teeth where the grill used to be. Driving is still tricky two days after the snow and ice storm. Now it’s not the ice on the roads so much as the huge sheets of the stuff flying off other cars and threatening to smash into my windshield.

Plus I have another cold. My hubby gave it too me for Valentine’s Day. Thanks, honey.

So on this bitter cold Pennsylvania morning, coughing and wheezing, I chiseled my car free from its icy tomb to take Samantha to the vet. After all that, you’d think for karma’s sake I’d be due good news.

Not.

The tumor under her tongue is back one month after the surgery to remove it the second time.

Rats.

After much discussion and a few tears, we’ve opted to pass on future surgeries and more drastic chemo treatments. The long-term effects of such strategies aren’t promising and the short-term discomfort could be intense. Since short-term is all we most likely have, I’ve decided to continue with the med she’s on now, which basically is an anti-inflammatory pain-killer that slows (not stops) the progress of the cancer.

For now, she doesn’t even know she’s sick. And if wasn’t for the vet telling me there’s a tumor under her tongue, I wouldn’t know it either. My goal is to keep her as comfortable and as happy as I can for as long as I can. And to value each precious day I have left with my Sammie.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Annette, this is so sad about Sammie. My heart really goes out to you. Cherish her and give her as much love and comfort as possible.

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